Twenty of these new single-deck buses are being progressively deployed on routes served by services 38 and 40 run by SBS Transit from Bedok Interchange, as well as those served by services 176 and 976 operated by SMRT from Bukit Panjang Interchange, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
Some of the 20 buses hit the roads on Wednesday (Aug 25).
They are the final batch of electric buses to be deployed here out of a fleet of 60 electric buses that were bought by the LTA in 2018.
This is part of the longer-term goal for all of Singapore’s 5,800 public buses to be run on cleaner energy by 2040. This includes electric and hybrid buses.
The 60 fully electric buses together are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by close to 8,000 tonnes a year, equivalent to that generated by 1,700 cars.
The 20 new buses, supplied by ST Engineering Mobility Services, will be charged using faster overhead pantograph chargers installed at Bedok and Bukit Panjang bus interchanges.
An apparatus on the top of the bus connects to overhead electrical lines to recharge the batteries.
The other 40 electric buses use conventional plug-in chargers at bus depots.
The pantograph chargers have a power rating of up to 450kW, three to five times that of the plug-in chargers.
With the pantograph chargers, bus drivers will be able to charge their buses during the 10- to 15-minute layover time at the interchange and carry on with the rest of their routes. This can give drivers enough battery power for up to 48km.
It takes 30 minutes for the new buses to be fully charged, and they have a mileage of up to 130km per charge.
In contrast, the buses that use the plug-in chargers take two to four hours to charge and have a range of between 200km and 300km.